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working with Russia for several years to de-escalate or contain Syria’s conflict in the northwest. One of its aims is to avoid another refugee influx: Turkey already hosts 3.6mn Syrians. Much of the recent shelling has hit an area that was declared a demilitarised “buffer zone” last year by Russia and Turkey. Under the agreement, heavy weapons and jihadists were supposed to leave the zone. Turkey has a dozen military bases in the Idlib region, also established in agreement with Russia. One was hit earlier this month in shelling from Syrian government-held territory, with two Turkish soldiers wounded. Hilal said the Turkish positions had been allowed to be established in the hope their presence would provide protection for the people. “But the reality says that these positions are not able to protect themselves today,” he said. “We hope that the Turkish side will ... defend these positions they set up and the areas they entered and prevent Russian and Syrian jets from flying in the areas where they are present, and the shelling of surrounding areas,” he said. “When these positions and the areas around them are shelled with Turkish soldiers wounded it raises a number of question marks,” he said, adding that Ankara should clarify “their role and what they want from these positions.”
Istanbul revote: Ousted mayor says AKP spent TRY80mn in three years on city’s website. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) spent Turkish lira (TRY) 80mn ($13mn) in three years on the Istanbul municipality’s website, according to the opposition politician voted in as mayor two months ago, only to see his shock victory annulled by officials acting on highly dubious claims of “irregularities”. In throwing a spotlight on the AKP’s management of Turkey’s largest city during the party’s many years in power, Imamoglu is highlighting what he sees as extravagant and wasteful spending by a municipality with an annual budget of nearly $4bn. During the mere 18 days he held the seals of office, the municipality cut water and transport fees, Imamoglu pointed out. Istanbul’s debt has expanded by 4.5 times to TRY27bn since 2014 while its annual budget deficit has soared 20-fold to TRY4bn, Imamoglu also said. If there was proper budget management, approximately TRY5bn could be saved and spent on residents, he added. Education, households living in poverty and green spaces were in need of more spending, Imamoglu noted.
Erdogan faces onslaught of criticism from Europe over election rerun— but US remains silent. Erdogan has come under a hail of fire from the European Union and domestic opposition politicians following the May 6 announcement that the Istanbul election lost by his ruling AKP at the end of March is to be rerun due to “irregularities”. However, surprise is mounting at the lack of reaction from the US, with Bloomberg Opinion on May 8 publishing a piece entitled “Trump Can’t Let Erdogan Get Away With This”.
Turkey’s EU accession process is already practically frozen due to human rights concerns. Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Mass called the decision for a rerun "incomprehensible" and not transparent; leading MEP Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian leader of the liberal group in the European parliament, said the Istanbul revote threatened to make continuing EU accession talks with Turkey "impossible" and commented that Turkey was "drifting towards dictatorship" and Paris called on Turkish authorities to show "respect for democratic principles, pluralism, fairness [and] transparency". Even some Turkish celebrities previously supportive of Erdogan turned against the president.
Gul ‘planning new party’. Abdullah Gul, Erdogan's predecessor and one of the party’s founding members, is by some accounts preparing to form a new party.
The electoral flaws which Turkey’s ruling AKP used to trigger the cancellation of the March 31 Istanbul mayoral vote also occurred in last year’s national elections, meaning President Erdogan should have his mandate annulled, the main opposition CHP said on May 8. Votes for Istanbul officials and district assemblies, submitted in the same envelopes used in the
14 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com